Sunday, 12 September 2010

Graeme's Retro Classics! ‘Galactica 1980’

Over the last week, or so, we’ve been watching the final series of the original ‘Battlestar Galactica’; one day I might even get round to watching the more recent series (although I’ve been saying that for a long time now)...After ‘Battlestar Galactica’ was first cancelled, at the back end of the seventies, fan pressure resulted in the series being bought back for another shot. I’ll bet all those fans, writing their ‘please bring Galactica back’ letters, never thought that the end result would be as... awkward... as this though.

Don’t get me wrong, we had a lot of fun watching ‘Galactica 1980’ and some of the reasons we had so much fun were good ones. It’s been a little while since I’ve watched any ‘old school Galactica’ and it was pretty cool to see the Colonial Vipers going up against the Cylons again as well as seeing a few familiar faces. It was at these moments though that I started to wonder... Why is it that Cylons always fly to the left when trying to avoid laser fire? The Galactica gunners pick them off every time, it’s almost like they either know in advance or the same piece of film is being repeated over and over again to save some money. I did tell myself off for being cynical until a few more episodes in when I realised that no matter where Colonial Warriors Troy and Dillon were, if they took off on their flying bikes then they would always end up flying over LA... Oh well, the stories stand up to viewing fairly well (Galactica’s attempts to protect an Earth unable to protect themselves against the Cylons whilst looking after their own needs as well) so I guess you can forgive a few, not so subtle, repeats of footage here and there. It’s all good fun in a ‘I remember this when it first came out kind of way’ :o)

The ‘awkwardness’ comes from the fact that nobody really seemed to know where they wanted this particular series to go. The series starts out with a time travel theme and abruptly dumps it with no explanation, leaving things in a bit of a mess to be blunt. One of the main characters is played by two different actors (again, with no explanation) and the series was cancelled halfway through a storyline featuring the return of a major character. Honestly, if you’re not going to do things properly then don’t do them at all!

On the flip side though, you do get things like the Cylons landing in New York (on Halloween) and flying motorbikes so it’s not all bad. I guess the one thing I took away from it all is that ‘Galactica 1980’ is a fun way to spend a few hours, just as long as you don’t think about what you’re watching too much...

2 comments:

I use to hang on every moment of Battlestar Galactica when I was a kid. I'd be reluctant to watch it now because it might stink. I suppose, like you said, I would still appreciate some things. Cylons landing in New York on Halloween has me smiling already.

Have you dared to delve into the old Buck Rogers with Gil Gerard. There's a challenge that should not be accepted by the weak. I used to adore that show, but watching some segments on YouTube recently shamed me deeply. Still, I must support any sci fi for TV. I think I spent much of 7th grade dreaming I could be like Wilma Dearing. She remains a nice role model.